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Transactions of the Society. 



micropylc was a long tube, exceeding the body of the seed in length,, 

 and Hanked by a broad wing, continuous with the outer layer of the 

 testa (fig. 33). 



Everything now points to the conclusion that the Medulloseae, 

 or Neuropteriderc, generally were seed-bearing plants. M. 

 Grand'Eury's recent observations on the distribution of these 

 fossils are of great interest in their bearing on this question.* This 

 distinguished French palreobotanist has an unrivalled knowledge 



Fig. 33. — Trigonocarpon Parlrinsoni. Cast of seed-cavity, -with long 

 micropylar canal, x 1^ di&m. From Barnsley, Middle Coal 

 Measures. Kidston Collection, 1062. (From a sketch by Miss 

 Janet Kobertson; kindly lent by Profossor F. W. Oliver.) 



of the coal-plants as they occur in situ in the mines. By his 

 researches on the mode of occurrence of the fossil plants in the coal- 

 fields of St. Etienne and other districts, he has been led to the con- 

 clusion that Alcthopteris, Ncuropteris, Odontopteris, Linopteris, and 

 others, bore seeds, and that they were primitive Cycadinpe with. 

 the fronds of Eerns. About St. Etienne, the Neuropteridese and 

 their allies form in bulk about one-seventh of the fossil vegetation, 

 and usually occur in groups by themselves, separate from the groups 



* Grand'Eury, "Sur les Graines des NeuropteiMe'es," Comptes Rendus, cxxxiV. 

 (1904) pp. 23, 782. 



